Hey folks, Valkor here. And I welcome you to TOV's "30 in 30", where I'll review 30 unique film and maybe some not so unique, all in 30 days. What's cool for most of the flicks, is that I know nothing about em. So this should be a real treat not just for you guys, but for me as well. Good or bad, this is gonna be a fun month. It all starts today July the 4th and ends on Aug the 3rd. Can I make it through? We'll know soon enough!
Ok I'm a little behind in posting, but I am ahead of the game in viewing, so I'll try to speed up my efforts starting with a look at another film reviving an 80's actor. This time it's Cornered! starring Steve Guttenberg.
Cornered! is a film that revolves around five individuals, hangin out after work, above a liquor store. Prior to that, there have been reports of a serial killer on the loose, who brutally murders people inside liquor stores, and that a reward to capture him is up to 500,000 bucks. So in this liquor store, a group which includes store owner Steve (Eduardo Antonio Garcia), his nephew and recovering meth addict Jimmy (James Duval), local prostitute Jess (Elizabeth Nicole), and workers Donny (Peter Story) and Mona (Ellia English), discuss the killer. Also joining in the talk is delivery man Morty (Steve Guttenberg). And each states what they would do if they had the killer in their midst; considering if he can be brought in dead or alive, everyone looks to dead and just how brutally they would do away with the killer. At the end of the night, the group (minus Morty) meets in the apartment one floor up for a poker match, with the store locked down and only Steve holding the key. What these guys don't know is that somehow the killer has found his way in, Jimmy has stolen the keys, every door is locked and every window is barred – essentially the group is cornered. Can anyone survive the night unscathed, possibly stopping the killer, and maybe getting the reward money?
I think this is one film you might wanna check out to find out, because if I told you, you may not believe it. But you'll know what's goin on before you get to the end.
The Good:
First the premise of the film is pretty solid – a bunch of people trapped in a building with a serial killer? Yea that works! Definitely well paced, though there's some slowdown in some scenes, you'll pretty much sail through the 87 minutes of the film. The acting has a lot of hits, with the first being Donny, though he's not pitiful enough, still an enjoyable character. I enjoyed the love interest he had with Jess and yea Elizabeth Nicole shines here as well. But workin overtime on this one is James Duval as a recovering drug addict still needin that fix. Man when he went insane over the roaches, all I can say is "nice". There's plenty of gore, not too heavy but some scenes are plenty gruesome. And finally you have some real tense moments; one in particular is when Donny and Jess are hiding in Steve's hidden room (where he keeps his tapes) from the killer. You'd swear that he'd pop up at any time and go after them, but when it didn't happen… yea I was impressed.
The Bad:
If Morty is the killer… how does he get in the house when it's locked down? Wouldn't it have been better if Morty had joined the game that way he'd already be in the house? At least Steve would get some screen time, which he barely receives here. Donny gets knocked out by slipping on a donut? Jess doesn't even flash boobs, and with one of the doors open, neither Donny nor Jess decide to make a break for it.
The Ugly:
Dog eating homeless man's guts.
Cornered! Isn't one of the worst films I've had to sit through, but not one of the best either; simply okay works for me. It has some tense moments, a hefty amount of gore, and an easy story to follow with an obvious twist and some predictability. And out of TOV 5 stars, I give Cornered! 2.5. Not good, not bad, just right.
